Fruits & Vegetables

Papa’s Potage, an ever-changing recipe

My dad is a creative cook. I think it scares my mom a little when he rolls up his sleeves and goes into the kitchen. When he was a little boy his dream was that someday when he was grown up he would have a refrigerator filled with every ingredient/topping imaginable to make the perfect […]

Blossoming Garnishes—How to carve a carrot ume blossom.

One of the things that I find captivating about Japanese cuisine is the presentation. It is beautiful. I read somewhere that Japanese cuisine takes advantage of the four distinct seasons and that garnishes are often created to give a sense of the season that the dish is representing. Although it is Fall now, I recently […]

Butternut Soup in My French Kitchen

“We came on the wind of the carnival. A warm wind for February, laden with the hot greasy scents of frying pancakes and sausages and powdery-sweet waffles cooked on the hot plate right there by the roadside, with the confetti sleeting down collars and cuffs and rolling in the gutters like an idiot antidote to […]

Fall Flavors: Sweet Potato Fries

As the weather starts to cool down and the mornings have that crispness in the air that lets you know fall is finally on its way, my thoughts turn to fall flavors–apples, pumpkin, pie, hot chocolate, candy corn, yams, sweet potatoes . . . . I love sweet potatoes, but this is a newer development. […]

Veggie Chili, Crash Hot Potatoes, & Chocolate Coconut Cookies

I'm always on the lookout for new yummy healthy recipes to add to my arsenal. This is especially important as Squirrel gets older and with me being pregnant. No matter how much I would rather have a chocolate truffle tarte for dinner some nights, I want to make sure that I instill healthy eating habits […]

Fridge Pickles & Tsukemono

On Monday I told you that I have a new big project in the works and I gave you some hints: 18, 40, 9, spicy, tomatoes, mush. One of my readers, Semsavblanc, guessed right . . . I'm adding another Fuji to the family! I am a little over 18 weeks along out of 40. […]

Calling all cukes! Sunomono (Japanese Cucumber Salad)

If you give me a choice between your regular garden variety cucumber and a Japanese cucumber, I will choose the Japanese cucumber every time, hands down. I love cucumbers, but for me, the Japanese cucumber is the empress of them all. It does not need to be peeled or seeded and the flavor is mild […]

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